Family Gift for Engineering Scholarship Honors UB Alum and Military Helicopter Pilot

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- It's a matter of honor for the family of Yong H. Lee, which has remembered the 1981 University at Buffalo graduate with an endowed scholarship in UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The Lee family has given more than $43,000, bringing the total in the fund to $50,000 and completing what classmates and friends began as a memorial fund for the helicopter pilot who died in 1996 in a crash during the initial test flight of a military helicopter bound for the presidential fleet.

"My brother was a very special individual, who brought out the best in everyone," said Gina Lee-Glauser, Lee's sister, who graduated from UB with a bachelor's degree in 1982 and a master's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering in 1988.

"Yong loved UB and the friends he made, bonding with his classmates in aerospace engineering and sharing his dreams of being a pilot." She added: "He never came home on holidays without a friend or two or three; so this is how we, his siblings, got to know UB."

Mark H. Karwan, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences thanked the family, praising Lee as "an outstanding graduate of our school and a leader on campus, as well as in his career."

Karwan added: "The family's generous gift demonstrates a confidence in our school and a level of financial support that is vital to our program, providing us with the ability to increase our margin of excellence by attracting or retaining students with superior qualifications."

The Yong H. Lee Endowed Scholarship Fund will assist a student in UB's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department during his or her junior and senior year. The two-year scholarship will be given every two years to a student based on factors including financial need.

The first Yong H. Lee Scholar will be selected by September 2001.

The Korean-born Lee came to the U.S. in 1974, along with his mother and younger siblings, joining his father, who had emigrated first and sent for them once he had acquired a small gas station and garage and could support the family.

The day after he arrived in the U.S., Lee went to high school in Brooklyn and returned home with two new friends and an agreement. He would teach them Tae kwon do and they would teach him English.

While at UB, Lee was active with the Korean Student Association and helped start a festival that featured Tae kwon do demonstrations, traditional Korean fan dances and Korean food tasting.

After graduation from UB, Lee became a Marine and went through flight school, eventually receiving the rank of captain before transferring to the U.S. Navy in 1989 and becoming a lieutenant commander.

During his time in the Navy, Lee served in the Gulf War and later flew helicopter relief missions for Kurdish refugees. Lee learned all that he could about helicopters and authored several maintenance manuals for military personnel on the CH-53E model.

In 1994, Lee was stationed in Italy when Sikorsky, a company that manufactures and tests helicopters for the U.S. Armed Forces, identified him as a perfect candidate to become a prestigious test pilot. Lee-Glauser said her brother took the job because "it gave him the opportunity to assist the designers in making the aircraft safer and more efficient for military use, and it would bring him closer to home and parents."

Yong was one of four persons -- 2 pilots, a crew chief and an engineer -- killed when a brand-new CH-53E crashed during its test flight on May 9, 1996, in Connecticut.

The Lee family gift is part of UB's $250 million campaign, the largest ever conducted by a public university in New York and New England. Although it is the fifth major fund-raising campaign conducted by UB, it is the first national/international campaign, the first university-wide campaign and the first to be alumni-driven with campaign volunteer leaders from all over the country. Funds raised will be used to enrich academic programs, support students ranging from undergraduates to post-doctoral students and to enhance university life.

Classmates and friends wishing to donate to the Lee endowment fund can call the SEAS Development Office at 716-645-2133 ext. 1122 or contact Jim Seng at seng@buffalo.edu.

For information on how you can support the University at Buffalo, go to http://www.buffalo.edu/giving.